Bob CollinsKentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has taken the undermining of the free press to a new extreme, posting a Facebook video railing against an investigative journalism organization that has partnered with his state’s biggest newspaper. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
By Bob Collins
Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.
Those words from Trevor Berger, the Atwater, Minn., police chief, are a reminder of the thin ice we’re all living on in the nation’s health care system. Read more →
Today on 1A (10 a.m. on MPR News), the guests will tackle the infamous prom photo from Baraboo, Wis., which has been roundly criticized, motivating the community to respond in the belief that the lack of education and understanding is involved in Baraboo’s hatred of Jews.
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Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
Yes, we know. There’s a little bit of public relations involved in Tuesday’s visit to the hospital by members of the Minnesota Twins.
But let’s just set the cynicsm aside for a moment. Just because we can. Also: Joe Mauer petting a dog. That’s why. Read more →
No charges will be filed against a New Hope police officer who shot and killed Ronald Klitzka, but the narrative of events released by prosecutors Wednesday makes the word “tragedy” insufficient to describe what happened. Read more →
The CBC offers poignant truth today in the telling of the story of three sisters, victims of the Sixties Scoop in Canada, in which Canada’s Indigenous, Metis and Inuit children were taken, often separated, then placed in foster homes or given to white families through adoption from the late ’50s to the ’80s. Read more →
Your daily dose of sweetness today comes the Star Tribune’s James Walsh, who has been telling us the story of Bones over the years with compassion and humanity. Read more →
There was a little more freezing fog around the upper Midwest overnight, which provided another chance to consider the advantage of living in flyover country. Light pillars, for example. Read more →
It’s only a matter of time before the easy pickings on the doorstep lead to someone getting killed, and there’s a chance it’ll be someone who wasn’t on the doorstep to steal the package. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
Alas, there’ll be no sell-off of The People’s Stadium. Craigslist has removed the posting, offering the stadium for sale for $1 billion, and for good reason. Read more →
All the charges have been dropped against Jazmine Headley, the woman who waited for nearly four hours to renew daycare vouchers in a New York City agency office that didn’t have enough chairs.
That’s an unsatisfying end to an outrageous event in which Ferguson was, basically, assaulted by police officers. Her crime? She was sitting on the floor. Read more →
We had some time to kill today while watching — and enjoying, frankly — lawmakers and President Trump argue out in the open as if there’s more than one branch of government. So we looked around the room and we have takeaways . Read more →
The Minnesota Court of Appeals this week struck a blow for drivers with cracked windshields. Read more →